


The Undead Knight

by BringontheWonder1997



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Crack, Crack Treated Seriously, Gen, Parody
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-21
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2020-12-27 13:26:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21119543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BringontheWonder1997/pseuds/BringontheWonder1997
Summary: Sir Leon never seems to die. Everyone knows that. So why is he always left to make his own way back home?





	1. Chapter 1

Sir Leon of Camelot was a Knight (as was probably apparent by the name). A Knight that had lasted an extraordinarily long time (the profession should include the word dead in the title). Most Knights were dead before they reached their fifth year. He was well into his eleventh.

He lived in Camelot (also obvious for the name) and protected its monarchy.

Not that they protected him particularly well.

Sir Leon had apparently suffered a multitude of horrendous and painful deaths. And still come back to Camelot. Every time he ‘died’ he was left alone by the Prince and the other Knights to make his own way back, despite the likelihood that he would soon awaken. It was very irritating and quite boring (who was he going to talk to? The trees? The birds? No, the walk got more boring each time he did it. He was starting to lose his sanity – last time he’d actually talked to himself for half of the ways back. Soon he’d be talking to no one at all).

The eleventh time that Sir Leon came home (fell into a river and washed away by the tide. It had been a week long journey back) he discovered a bet that had been going on since his sixth ‘death’ (that one had involved yet another battle and a horse that had been frightened by a fishing rod). Only this time the King himself had become involved. He wasn’t sure whether to be flattered that they all thought he would live or annoyed that they counted on him ‘dying’ again.

It was really very strange. In a Kingdom that condemned magic, a Knight that couldn’t die was known to live. And the King knew (in fact, the King was betting on him). If the ordinary people of Camelot had known they would have been rather puzzled, having seen evidence of their monarch’s attitude towards all things magical, most of them in the form of their friends and family being burned alive. They probably would have called him hypocritical.

Luckily the public had no awareness of the number of times their beloved Sir Leon had ‘died’.

One time he’d ‘died’ he’d seen an odd thing (actually he’d seen a variety of odd things; people didn’t care what they did in front of a ‘dead’ man). The Prince’s manservant, Merlin – cheeky, insolent but undeniably witty, shouting in a strange and guttural language. At a dragon.

The sight was almost enough the kill Leon then and there.

He’d wondered – if he ‘killed’ himself then would he stay dead. Or would he stay alive? (because really the impending heart attack was all Merlin’s fault)

The dragon had halted in midair and bowed before the servant who called it by name (wasn’t that part of a Christmas story?) and ordered it to leave the Kingdom or else be killed.

And the dragon (a giant, man-eating dragon who breathed fire and was a dragon) listened to the fragile looking boy was apparently wasn’t as fragile as he appeared. It would seem the boy had magic. Or was a Dragon Lord. Considering the last Dragon Lord had died only yesterday, Leon would put his money on the former (he would only be half right).

If Merlin, of all people, could command dragons what was the Lady Morgana or anyone else capable of?

(Sir Leon would later look back on those thoughts and laugh. Morgana was capable of far more than she seemed.)

The dragon, it seemed, would no longer be bothering Camelot (it was flying away. After listening to Merlin. Who had magic. The world had gone mad.). ‘That was nice,’ was Leon’s last though before he fainted.

When he awoke he found he’d been left alone in the field with a collection of dead Knights and horses (and a distinct lack of dead dragons). Again.

This really was annoying.

And for the thirty second time, Leon made the solitary journey home, thanking the Lord that this time he was relatively close to the citadel and not in a neighbouring (or distant) Kingdom.

At least he now had something to think about on his long travels (he really got to tour the world, didn’t he?) – What else was Merlin capable of?


	2. Chapter 2

Leon found that Merlin was capable of quite a lot of things, now that he thought about it. There had been a strange number of accidents and incidents with bandits and magical creatures, all finding themselves falling from trees or dropping their swords or being beheaded in a single blow, no matter how many times otherwise Gaius told them it wouldn't succeed.

And every time that had happened Merlin was with them.

(Given what he'd seen with the dragon, that wasn't so surprising. Merlin was apparently amazing at throwing people off, unless his clumsiness wasn't actually acting.) (If it wasn't Leon actually feared for Camelot's future in his hands.)

But still, what was a sorcerer doing in a Kingdom in which all magical people were executed?

Perhaps Merlin really did have something wrong with his head.

Or not. Leon remembered that Merlin's mental issues had only come to light after attempting to get himself arresting for sorcery in Gwen's place, and almost succeeding. 

How many of the other things that Merlin had said were true? Merlin came out with a lot of things, some sounding too farfetched to be likely, but maybe Merlin did have the most experience in these areas.

Hmm, next time they were attacked by bandits Leon would have to see about helping Merlin out. (Discretely of course. Though Arthur hadn't actually noticed how unlikely it was for that many bandits to fall from trees or spontaneously drop their swords, so it didn't seem like he'd been figuring it out anytime soon.)

None of this stops him from dying of course (he's up to death forty-one by now) but it makes for interesting thinking when he's on his way home.

Sometimes he wonders if he's ever going to tell Merlin that he knows.

(But that would kind of ruin the idea of a secret protector, wouldn't it?)


	3. Chapter 3

He doesn't ever tell Merlin that he already knew his secret, not even when Arthur finally finds out and magic is legalised in Camelot. He thinks he might do one day, just to see the look on everyone else's faces, but he knows that now is not the right time. Arthur will probably consider it another betrayal and there will be more shouting and death threats, even if everyone knows that Arthur will never go through with them, and they've just finished with the last lot. Anyway, Camelot's dungeons weren't particularly appealing, and he didn't feel like spending the time down there for Arthur to make a point.

But Merlin's secret is a trigger for everyone else coming out with something that they've been hiding about themselves - like Elyan's love of singing and Percival's cooking skills.

And the fact that Gwaine is actually a noble.

Really, no one had seen that coming (except for Merlin, but he was just good at keeping secrets, wasn't he?)

Leon on the other hand doesn't hide anything, especially not from his King - they've known each other too long.

(Except for the fact that Merlin had magic, but that one doesn't really count.)


End file.
